Carpenter (surname)
Encyclopedia
Carpenter is a surname. Its use as a forename or middle name is rare. Within the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, it is ranked as the 189th-most common surname. The English meaning of carpenter is one who makes wooden objects and structures by shaping wood.

Origin

Common use of the Carpenter surname in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 is seen circa 1275-1325 in Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

. Its use prior to this time as a surname has roots in the Anglo-Norman French introduced into England about the time of the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

 of 1066. The earliest attested use as a surname in English is from 1121, though its use as a secondary name or description in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

of 1086 might have precedence.

In Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

, the surname was commonly written as "Carpentier" and its earlier form as "Charpentier". Its use as a surname may have derived as a nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 or description of one's occupation circa 900-1000.

All of these variations come from the Late Latin
Late Latin
Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...

 carpentārĭus, denoting use as an artifex - a wagon or carriage-maker equal to a wainwright
Wainwright
A wainwright is a tradesperson skilled in the making and repairing of wagons . The word is the combination of the archaic words "wain" and "wright" .In places:*Canada...

. The roots of carpentārĭus come from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 carpentum, meaning a two-wheeled carriage or a form of chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...

 not used directly for warfare in the community by women and others, plus arius - used in the masculine form as a noun denoting an agent of use from other nouns. It may be related to the Old Irish carpat and the Gaulish
Gaulish language
The Gaulish language is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken by the Gauls, a people who inhabited the region known as Gaul from the Iron Age through the Roman period...

 carbad for carriage or cart, and is probably related to the Gaulish karros.

Carpenter name variants

Carpenter name variants include:
  • Wright
    Wright
    Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term Wright comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word "wryhta" or "wyrhta", meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker , and is used as a British family name...

    - Woodwright in old England Such as a "wood wright" (wood worker). See also Wainwright (name)
    Wainwright (name)
    Wainwright is an Anglo-Saxon occupational surname derived from the pre-7th century Old English word waegnwyrhta. The prefix, "waegn/waen, refers to a vehicle/wagon, common in its time as being horse-driven and four-wheeled. The suffix, wyrhta/wright, refers to a maker/builder. The earliest...

    , from "wain wright" (a wooden wagon maker).
  • Carpentier
    Carpentier
    Carpentier is a surname from the old French Charpentier and is similar to the English Carpenter.Origin: [900-1000] Charpentier - Old French Carpentier is a surname from the old French Charpentier and is similar to the English Carpenter....

    and Charpentier
    Charpentier
    Charpentier is the French word for carpenter and a French surname. A variant spelling is Carpentier. In English the name is spelled Carpenter while in German it is Zimmermann....

    - From the French Norman Carpentier (le Carpentier, le Charpentier), a worker of wood, derived from the late Latin "carpentarius", a maker of wooden carriages. French Surnames > CARPENTIER ++, Forme norm.-picarde de Charpentier; var. du Sud-Ouest et roussillonnase Carpentier. Avecart. Le Carpentier. The surname Charpentier could be the source of other surnames due to the adventurousness of its early French bearers; for example, Francois Charpentier and Joseph Charpentier were Jacobites
    Jacobitism
    Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

     captured during the 1745 rising while in the French Service. Francois was a native of Dieppe
    Dieppe, Seine-Maritime
    Dieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in France. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe urban area was 81,419.A port on the English Channel, famous for its scallops, and with a regular ferry service from the Gare Maritime to Newhaven in England, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled...

    , France captured at Carlisle
    City of Carlisle
    The City of Carlisle is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...

    , Marshalsea
    Marshalsea
    The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark, now part of London. From the 14th century until it closed in 1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including those accused of "unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of...

    , and Joseph was captured at sea and imprisoned at Berwick
    Berwick
    Berwick-upon-Tweed is a border town in the north of England.Berwick may also refer to:- England :*Berwick Street Market, London*Berwick, Sussex**Berwick railway station*Berwick St John, Wiltshire...

    .

  • Zimmermann
    Zimmermann
    Zimmermann is a German surname and the occupational name in German for a carpenter. As a surname, it is often confused with Zimmerman; the variance "nn" or "n" may have a number of implications: racial, ethnic and religious among them. As an occupational name, it derives from the Middle High German...

    - German for a worker in wood. Also the variant Simmerman.

  • Carpintero - Carpenter in Spanish. A worker in wood, from the Latin "carpentarius".

  • Carpender
    Carpender
    Carpender is a surname. It is an English phonetic variant of the surname Carpenter. It is sometimes seen as Carpendar.-Notable Carpenders:*Arthur S...

    - An English phonetic name variant of Carpenter. Also seen as Carpendar.

  • De Carpenter or De Carpentier - Dutch for "the carpenter", a worker of wood, from the French Carpentier.

  • Mac-an-t-Saoir - Irish for "son of the descendants of the workman", anglicized as MacIntyre or Macintyre
    MacIntyre
    MacIntyre or Macintyre is a Scottish surname, of Gaelic origin, relating to Clan MacIntyre. Its meaning is "Son of the Carpenter". The anglicized version of the MacIntyre name is Wright....

    , Carpenter (particularly in and around Dublin), and other related names, sometimes incorrectly as Freeman. Carpenter is not an Irish name in origin, but may have been adopted as a result of a 1465 law enacting that "every Irishman that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen in the County of Dublin, Myeth, Vriell, and Kildare ... shall take to him an English Surname of ... arte or science, as ... carpenter"; the surname was recorded there as early as 1636 and as late as 1890. The 1659 census of County Limerick listed Carpenter as a family surname in Balliea townland, Small County Barony, and among the tituladoes (principal residents) in the barony of Cosmay in Limerick. In 1890, 10 entries for Carpenter were made in Ireland's birth indexes, with 8 in Leinster Province (County Dublin), and 1 each in Munster and Ulster provinces. In County Kerry
    County Kerry
    Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...

    , the surname is said to be that of an English family who settled on estates near Tralee as a result of the Irish Rebellion of 1641
    Irish Rebellion of 1641
    The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...

    . Many of the MacIntyres of Northern Ireland are believed to be descended from the Scottish Clan MacIntyre
    Clan Macintyre
    Clan MacIntyre is a Scottish clan. The name MacIntyre , means "son of the carpenter." Although no documented history of the clan exists, it is most commonly said to descend from Maurice Mac Neil a nephew of Somerled, the great 12th century leader of the Scottish Gaels...

     whose ancient seat was in Lorn
    Lorn
    Lorn may refer to:* John Lorn McDougall , Ontario businessman and political figure* John Lorn McDougall, Sr. , businessman and political figure in Canada West* Lorn, New South Wales, Australia...

    .

  • Timmerman - Carpenter in Dutch, a worker of wood, from the German Zimmerman.

  • Carpentiere - Carpenter in Italian, a worker of wood, from the Latin "carpentarius".

  • Chippie - British
    United Kingdom
    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

     and Australian slang
    Slang
    Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...

     for a carpenter. Can be used for either the occupation or surname.

  • Tischler and Schreiner
    Schreiner
    ----Schreiner is a family name of German origin.- Origin :Schreiner  is an example from the large class of family names that originally derived from the occupations of the people who bore the names. It refers to a woodworker and often more specifically to a maker of fine woodwork; thus it...

    , which are also surnames, are German
    Germans
    The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

     names for woodworking names/professions related to the English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

     word Carpenter.

Y-DNA project

A Y-DNA surname project
Surname project
A surname DNA project is a genetic genealogy project which uses genealogical DNA tests to trace male lineage.Because surnames are passed down from father to son in many cultures, and Y-chromosomes are passed from father to son with a predictable rate of mutation, people with the same surname can...

 exists for both Carpenter and its related variants, and the related names in German (Zimmerman), French (Charpentier), and other languages with their name variants within a single project.

Y-DNA is passed from father to son virtually unchanged over the generations. DNA has documented that Carpenter, Zimmerman, Charpentier and other related surnames do not have a single common root. While grouping does exist, it seems by parent or native country rather than regional via the most common ancestor
Common descent
In evolutionary biology, a group of organisms share common descent if they have a common ancestor. There is strong quantitative support for the theory that all living organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor....

.

As of August 2009, the Y-DNA project is active with 20 organized groups with number 20 representing genetic
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 near matches (Group 98) and random results (Group 99). There appears to be about 240 tested members with the majority (215) from Family Tree DNA
FamilyTreeDNA
Family Tree DNA is a commercial genetic genealogy company based in Houston, Texas with its partner laboratory, Arizona Research Labs, housed at the University of Arizona. Family Tree DNA offers analysis of autosomal DNA, YDNA, and mtDNA to individuals for genealogical purposes based on DNA samples...

 and the others from different DNA testing companies for genetic genealogical
Genetic genealogy
Genetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level of genetic relationship between individuals.-History:...

 testing. Sub-grouping within the group is done in two ways. 1) By genealogical
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

 paper trails or the lack thereof resulting in connections genealogically and genetically related then genetically related but not connected genealogically. 2) By Y-DNA markers representing genetic mutations
Mutation
In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...

 or a genetic distance
Genetic distance
Genetic distance refers to the genetic divergence between species or between populations within a species. It is measured by a variety of parameters. Smaller genetic distances indicate a close genetic relationship whereas large genetic distances indicate a more distant genetic relationship...

 or variance from the group norm. These mutations within the group can form genetic sub-grouping if confirmed by genealogical material. The possibility of a random mutation occurring in different lines must always be considered in DNA testing and is called a random match. Project administrators have paid special attention to these mutations for group association. Two groups in particular (Groups 2 and 3) have 24 out of 25 markers in common. Further testing, including specialized testing on individual Y-STR
Y-STR
A Y-STR is a short tandem repeat on the Y-chromosome. Y-STRs are often used in forensics, paternity, and genealogical DNA testing.-Nomenclature:Y-STRs are assigned names by the HUGO gene nomenclature committee....

 markers, have provided a clearer separation of based on DNA values.

Haplogroup
Haplogroup
In the study of molecular evolution, a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor having the same single nucleotide polymorphism mutation in both haplotypes. Because a haplogroup consists of similar haplotypes, this is what makes it possible to predict a haplogroup...

ing is consistent within the organized groups 1-19, but is not focused on by this genetic-genealogy project. Haplogroups and their haplotype
Haplotype
A haplotype in genetics is a combination of alleles at adjacent locations on the chromosome that are transmitted together...

s help reveal deep ancestry based on mathematical probability
Probability theory
Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...

 and tries to relate to prehistoric or estimated cultures
Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures
The synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures gives a rough picture of the relationships between the various principal cultures of prehistory outside the Americas, Antarctica, Australia and Oceania...

, groups or climes. The common western European Haplogroup, R1b
Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)
The point of origin of R1b is thought to lie in Eurasia, most likely in Western Asia. T. Karafet et al. estimated the age of R1, the parent of R1b, as 18,500 years before present....

, also known as the Western Atlantic Modal Haplogroup (WAMH), shows up in the majority of the groups which is not unexpected with the majority of tested members claiming Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 as a possible location for their ancestor
Ancestor
An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....

s. Those who have this more common haplogroup should test 37 or more Y-STR
Y-STR
A Y-STR is a short tandem repeat on the Y-chromosome. Y-STRs are often used in forensics, paternity, and genealogical DNA testing.-Nomenclature:Y-STRs are assigned names by the HUGO gene nomenclature committee....

 markers while most others can start at a 25 markers Y-DNA test
Genealogical DNA test
A genealogical DNA test examines the nucleotides at specific locations on a person's DNA for genetic genealogy purposes. The test results are not meant to have any informative medical value and do not determine specific genetic diseases or disorders ; they are intended only to give genealogical...

.

All groups have made an effort to provide a basic paternal lineage
Patrilineality
Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....

 that is listed on a separate page and can be accessed via ID numbers on Table 1 or via the Table of Contents “Lineages” hyperlink. Only one paternal lineage claims descent more than 600 years. This is consistent with common genealogy trends and results. While Y-DNA testing will never replace proper genealogical efforts, it is valuable in confirming genetic relationships and non-relationships.

See also

  • List of people with surname Carpenter, for real and fictional Carpenters
  • Carpenter (disambiguation)
    Carpenter (disambiguation)
    A carpenter is a person who engages in carpentry, the craft of woodworking.Carpenter or Carpenters may also refer to:-Communities and settlements:* Carpenter, Alabama* Carpenter, California* Carpenter, Colorado, a ghost town...

    , for Carpenter named communities, natural features, and manmade features
  • Historic Carpenter Houses, for houses, homes, shops, homesteads, farmsteads, or other partially named or hyphenated named places with "Carpenter" or a similar meaning name
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